Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear Ian,

Thanks for yours. I will clarify a few points:

"I do have problems with your basic approach of what seems to be arguing for 
the veracity of something by simply suggesting possibilities."

I am not so much arguing for the veracity of the accounts as arguing 
against the proposition that they are impossible. Are you prepared to 
accept the proposition (for example) "It is possible that an Israelite 
named Moses was brought up at the Egyptian court and learned to read 
and write"? If so, we can agree on that. If not, I can disagree with 
you validly by suggesting possibilities. I would accept that we can go 
further only if we accept the premise which Kitchen and I put forward: 
"once the veracity of Ex. ii. 10a,11 is granted"; and that (unless 
other evidence is found) such a premise can be accepted only by faith.

>Ian also wrote:
>
>>There is nothing to suggest the means of maintaining records in pre-exilic 
>>Palestine.
>
>Well, if you don't accept even as suggestive evidence the physical 
>survival on papyrus (which you did not dispute) of one of those 
>records (see my separate posting),

"One cannot use such a text written in Phoenician script listing some 
names and preserved as a palimpsest at Murabba'at as representative of the 
means of maintaining records in a Palestinian context. Remember that, when 
Lachish was under siege by the Assyrians, communications were passed on 
using messages written in ink on pottery, suggesting that pottery sherds 
were the more likely means of preserving texts."

""Suggestive evidence" is quite an interesting term. What place does it have 
in a court of law where one is trying to establish facts?"

What I mean is, a "something" which would contradict your "nothing to 
suggest" quoted above. I suppose the legal equivalent is 
"circumstantial evidence", which is not enough to convict on its own 
but which may be used to support a conviction. Thank you for reminding 
me of further evidence of writing on pottery at Lachish, which is at 
least "something to suggest" a means of maintaining records, on 
pottery sherds. I think there is reasonable evidence that in 
pre-exilic Israel sometimes papyrus, sometimes pottery was used for 
written records. I know we can't prove much by this, but we can at 
least disprove such theories as "writing on papyrus was unknown in 
pre-exilic Israel".

Peter